Lauryn Williams using Millrose Games as part of London prep

NEW YORK, February 7, 2012 – Former 100m World Champion Lauryn Williams is returning to the Armory Saturday to start her 2012 campaign that she hopes can culminate at the Summer Olympics in London.

Williams will be one of the favorites during the Women’s 60m Dash in the 105th Millrose Games at the Armory’s New Balance Track & Field Center.

“The 2012 plan is simple: Make the most of every moment,” said the 28-year-old Williams, a runner-up last year to Veronica Campbell-Brown in the 60m at Millrose. “I remember clearly competing at the Armory in high school and college (University of Miami). It is the perfect venue for me mentally.

“I have 14 (friends) attending the Millrose Games and I just want to make those who have been in my corner throughout this journey proud.”

She took home the Gold medal in the 100m during the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki. A year earlier in the same event she won a Silver medal in the Summer Olympics in Athens. Williams captured the Gold in 100m in the 2003 Pan American Games.

Saturday marks her third try in the 60m at the Armory. In 2002 as a member of the University of Miami (Fla.) Williams finished second in the New Balance Collegiate Invitational, and in 2001 for Rochester High School (Pa.) she was runner-up in the National Scholastic Indoor Championships.

Williams’ top challengers in Saturday’s 60m event are expected to come from current USA champion Shalonda Solomon and Bianca Knight. During last year’s National Championships Solomon turned in the world’s best time in the 200m for 2011 (22.15). In 2008 Knight, then a freshman at the University of Texas, recorded the Collegiate Indoor record (22.40) in the 200m.

In 1961 Wilma Rudolph won the first Millrose Games’ 60m, one year after becoming the first American woman to win three Olympic Gold medals. Gail Devers and Gwen Torrence captured multiple 60m Millrose titles during their respective legendary careers. Devers owns the Millrose record with a 7.00 in 1994.

The Women’s 60m dash is scheduled for 9:09 p.m. Saturday. Broadcast of the entire Millrose Games will be available in HD at youtube.com/armorytrack starting at 4 p.m. with the premier showcase beginning at 6:45 p.m. through the last second of the famed NYRR Wanamaker Mile at approximately 10 p.m. Dwight Stones and Tim Hutchings will call the action from the Armory.

MORE ABOUT THE 105th MILLROSE GAMES: The country’s top men’s and women’s track & field athletes along with the finest college and high school student-athletes will showcase their talents in the Millrose Games at the Armory.

The Armory previously announced 22-year-old Matthew Centrowitz, the 1,500m Bronze medal winner in the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, will be in this year’s NYRR Wanamaker Mile. Other celebrated track & field representatives confirmed for the Millrose Games include 2008 Olympic Gold Medal winner LaShawn Merritt, who will compete in the 500m event, eight-time Wanamaker Mile champion Bernard Lagat will run in the 5,000m, and American record holder and 2008 Olympic Bronze medal winner David Oliver will be compete in the 60m Hurdles.

Three U.S. National records in the 5,000m event could fall and also the Millrose Games all-time mark. Lagat is attempting to break Galen Rupp’s American Indoor record of 13:11.44. The other two American records at stake in the race will be the collegiate and high school marks as 11 “super” runners square off in one of the night’s most anticipated events. A fourth record – the Millrose mark of 13:20.4 – could be eclipsed. Suleiman Nyambui of Tanzania established that record in 1981 when he edged Alberto Salazar (13:22.6) to set a World Indoor record.

Contender for an Olympic Gold medal and current Outdoor High Jump World Champion Jesse Williams joins World Champion/2008 USA Olympian Jennifer Simpson as confirmed athletes in the nation’s premier indoor track & field event. Simpson will participate in the Millrose Games’ first New York Road Runners’ Wanamaker Metric Mile for Women along with two-time U.S. champion and 2008 Olympic finalist Shannon Rowbury.

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